Automatic card-cutting machine



I Nov. 5, 1929. 1.. E. LA BOMBARD ET AL 1,734,385

AUTOMATIC CARD CUTTING MACHINE Filed March 22, 1926 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Fig.1.

1929- L. E. LA BOMBARD ET AL 85 AUTOMATIC CARD CUTTING MACHINE Filed March 22, 1926 I 6 Sheets-Sheet 2 Nov. 5, 1929. L. E. LA BOMBARD ET AL 1,734,385

AUTOMATIC CARD CUTTING MACHINE Fil M r h 2 1926 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 ATTU/ FNZFK Patented Nov. 5, 1929 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE LEON E. LA BOMBARD AND MELVIN H. SILDEBOTHAM, CHELSEA, MASSACHUSETTS,

ASSIGNORS TO SPECIALTY AUTOMATIC MACHINE COMPANY, OF CHELSEA, MASSA- CHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS I AUTOMATIC CARD-CUTTING MACHINE Application filed March 22, 1926.

This invention relates to machines for slitting sheet material, and has particular retorence to machines for producing the members known as vertical guides in tiling systems. The material of which such guides areniade is usually of quite strong and stiff paper stock. For convenience of terminology the product will be rot-erred to as cards.

It is quite essential that such cards, for any particular filing system, shall be uniform in size and shall have smooth edges. Machines for making such guides or cards have been produced, but so far as We are aware such machines have required more or less manual operation or control.

The principal object of our present invention is to provide a machine which will automatically take large sheets of the material from a supply stock and convert each sheet into Citlt s of the required size and shape, in rapid and economical manner. a

A further object is to effect the deposit of the cards produced from the sheets, in separate piles which can be readily removed by an attendant without any such interengagement of the edges of the cards in adjoining piles as would interfere with easy removal of the piles. 1

With the above objects in view and others in the construction and combination of parts substantially as hereinafter described andclaimcd.

Of theaccompanying drawings Figures 1 and 2, on separate sheets, when viewed together, constitute a plan view of the machine. I Figure 3 represents a section on line 3-3 of Figure .1, on a larger scale. I

Figure 4 represents a section of parts shown in both of Figures 1 and *2, on the lines 41 of said Figures 1 and 2.

Figure 5 is a perspective view of portions of the machine shown in Figure 4. I

Similar reference characters indicate similar parts in all of the views. I

The frame of the first portion of the machine is indicated at 20, and of the second or lateral portion at 21, A pile or sheets of the material to be out is placedon an inclined hereinafter explained, the invention consists Serial No. 96,650.

them of idly mounted rolls 24 which are either so located permanently, or are capable of being so located, that the rolls themselves rather than the plates 23, will support the pile of The plates 23 are spaced far enoughapart to provide for the location between sheets that are to be fed singly and successively I 7 through the machine and then cut. A suitableside guide plate for the pile is indicated 7 A suitably driven shaft 26, mounted in frame brackets 27 which are connected by a tie rod 28, carries a friction combing Wheel 29 (Figs. 1 and which, in operation, is

similar'to the wheel 21 in Letters Patent No.

1,536,799 granted to us May 5, 1925, and below which wheel is a roll 30. \Vhen the machine is to be operated a pile of sheets is placed on the feed table 23, 24, which is inclined so that the sheets tend to assume the positions illustrated by Figure 1 of said patent; 'Rotation of the friction wheel 29 combs the sheets singly from the pile and automatically feeds them successively over the roll 30 and over a guide'plate 31, each fed sheet/being then advanced by the cooperation of a driven roll 32 and a series of small rolls supported by brackets adjustably mounted on a cross bar 35.

Each sheet arrives on a smooth-surfaced stationary table 36 with the margin thereof passing under a guide strip 37. The table 36 has an area of such size as to smoothly receive either large or small sheets and is provided with a series of holes 38 to receive screws 39 passing through slotted portions of stops 40 which arrest each sheet that is fed onto the table 36. To prevent rebound of the sheet from the stop or stops a suitable retard is provided, said retard being illustrated as a brush 41 supported by a plate 42 which is mounted so as to be adjustable along a rod 43 projecting from and adjustable laterally on a bar 44.

After a sheet arrives on the table 36 it is pushed laterally therefrom to be acted upon by the slitters presently described, such pusher comprising a strip supported by a bracket 46 having afoot piece 47 mounted to slide in a way 48 in the table 36.

A portion of the bracket 46 extends through the way 48 and is connected by means of a link 49 with an arm 50 of a rock shaft 51, said rock shaft having another arm 52 provided with a roll indicated by dotted lines in Figure 3, said roll being acted upon by a cam 53 carried by a shaft 54 the operation of which is so timed that, through the mechanism just de scribed, each sheet arriving on the table 36 between the guide strip 37 and the pusher 45 will be immediately transferred in a new direction to be slitted or cut into cards.

It will be noticed that in Figure 1 the pusher 45 is in a position relatively to the guide strip 37 to admit a narrow sheet, the feed wheel 29 being in such position along its shaft 26 as to feed such sheet. This illustration is because, with the parts in the relative positions indicated, it is to be assumed that the sheets to be out are of such area that when out they will be converted into cards nearly square. With such adjustment, only one of the stops 40 is being used. lVhen wider sheets are to be converted into cards, the extreme backward position of the pusher 45, when a sheet arrives in front of it, will be farther to the right than shown in Figure 1. This adjustment of the pusher 45 can be effected by any suitable means such as employing a link 49 of adifi'erent length or by using a link of well known construction which is adjustable in length. lVhen wide sheets are to be cut, it will usually be advisable to utilize both of the stops 40, and to adjust the retard 41 outwardly along the rod 43.

One of the main advantages of our present machine is that we are able to use sheet material of almost any width, which material can be slitted by the mechanism now to be described, along lines as far apart as may be desired, to provide wide or narrow cards, because the slitters are adjustable relatively to each other.

Each sheet is acted upon by the pusher 45 to cause it to travel toward cooperating ro tary slitters 55 (Figs. 1 and 4), carried by shafts 56, the slitters being such in numbers, and so adjustable along their shafts 56, that the sheets can be cut into cards of any desired width. To cause each sheet to be cut or slitted, it is advanced by the pusher 45 between a driven shaft or roll 57 and a series of rolls 58 supported by brackets 59 adjustably mounted on a bar 60. To aid in rendering it certain that each sheet acted upon by the usher 45 will advance souarel alon to the be efiected by brushes 61 suitably supported by the bar 44.

With the parts in their relative positions indicated in Figure 1, it is to be assumed that each somewhat long and narrow sheet fed onto the table 36 is to be then cut by the slitters 55 into three cards, with possibly some trimming operation by the slitters which are shown as farthest apart in Figure 1.

The cards which are cut by the slitters pass between a driven shaft or roll 62 and a series of small rolls 63 supported by and adjustable along a bar 65.

If now these separate cards were to arrive on a single support all in one plane, it would be impossible to prevent intermeshin of the edges of cards in adjacent piles, and it would be then diflicult to separate the piles. This would be especially true when the material is of the quite heavy stock that is usually employed for the guides used in filing systems. Vie will now describe the mechanism which provides for depositing the cards in easily separated and removable piles.

Adjustably mounted on a bar 66 (Fig. 4) are a plurality of inclined guiding fingers 67, 68, the tips of which are so located relatively to the exit side of the nip of the rolls 62, 63, as to result in the guiding of some cards up and some down. As will be seen by comparing Figure 1 and 4, there is one pair of fingers 68 and two pairs of fingers 67 the latter serving to guide two. out cards upwardly at a considerable distance from each other, while the intermediate fingers 68 serve to guide the intermediate cards downwardly. This is when each length of sheet material is cut into three cards. The two end cards which are guided upwardly over the fingers 67 are taken by a pair of driven rolls 69 and are passed under a guide plate 7 O and delivered onto a carrier belt 71, while the intermediate card cut from each sheet is directed downwardly by the fingers 68 and passes between a pair of driven rolls 7 2 and is then guided by a plate 73 onto a carrier belt 74 under the belt 71.

Bearing on the carrier belt 71 is a pressure roll 75 (Figs. 2, 4 and 5) idly mounted in arms 76, the said arms being mounted on a shaft 7 7 which, at each end, is mounted in a bracket 7 8. The two brackets 78 are mounted to slide or to be adjustable along, guide bars 79, and the two brackets are connected by a rod 80. The shaft 77 has, at each end, a pinion 81 meshing with a rack 82, said shaft having an angular portion 83 adapted to be engaged by a suitable wrench to rotate the shaft, which rotation causes the pinion 81 at each end thereof engaging a rack 82, to shift the position of the pressure roll 75. Therefore, when the roll 75 is to be varied in its position of distance from the plate 7 0, there will be no distortion of its position and therefore each card on the carrier belt 71 will be held square- 1y on the belt regardless of the speed with which each card is deposited on the belt.

Each card is delivered by the belt 71 onto a stationary table or platform 84, the cards arriving thereon in separate piles which are easily removable by an attendant.

It is to be understood that the intermediate cards out from the sheets, and which arrive on the lower carrier belt 74, pass under a pressure roll mounted and adjustable in the same way as the pressure roll 7 5 which bears on the upper belt 71. In other words, each carrier belt 71, 74, may each have an adjustable pressure roll as indicated at 75; and of course there is a receiving table for the lower belt similar to the one illustrated at 84 in Figure 2, in position to receive, in pile, the cards delivered to it by said lower elt.

It will now be understood that, with the structure as illustrated and described, the cards deflected downwardly by the fingers 68 will finally arrive on a lower receiving table in the form of a single pile or collection, while the cards deflected upwardly by the two spaced pairs of fingers 67 will arrive on the upper receiving table in the form of two piles or collections entirely separated from each other by a distance or space substantially equal to the width of those cards which have passed downwardly onto the lower carrier belt and the lower table.

Having now described our invention, we claim:

l. A machine for converting sheet material into sections, said machine having a fiat table provided with an adjustable stop and having means for automatically separating the sheets from a supply and sliding them singly on said table against said stop, and laterally adjustable means for cutting each sheet into a plurality of sections while travelling in another direction.

2. A machine for making filing-system cards, comprising a flat table having an adjustable stop, means for feeding sheets singly and successively onto said table against said stop, means for causingeach sheet to travel laterally from said table, and a plurality of relatively adjustable cutters for dividing each sheet into sections while so travelling.

ally adjustable fingers in position to guide the material operated upon by the slitters, some of the fingers being inclined upwardly and others downwardly, and means for separately collecting the material which is guided by said fingers into different planes of delivery.

5. A machine of the character described, having a pair of shafts with cooperating slitters adjustable mounted thereon, laterally adjustable fingers in position to guide the material operated upon by the slitters and de liver them therefrom, and upper and lower belts one directly below the other for receiving the cut material from said fingers, said fingers extending to different planes to deliver some of the cut material to the upper belt and some to the lower belt.

In testimony whereof we have afiixed our signatures.

LEON E. LA BOMBARD. MELVIN H. SIDEBOTHAM.

3. A machine for making filing-system I cards, comprising a fiat table having an adjustable stop, means for feeding sheets sin-- gly and successively onto said table against said stop, means for causing each sheet to travel laterally from, said table, a plurality of relatively adjustable cutters for dividing each sheet into sections while so travelling, and means for assembling the sections in separated collections.

4. A machine of the character described, having a pair of shafts with cooperating slitters adjustably mounted thereon, later- 

